Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/450

430 council. The audiencia in Mexico decreed October 8, 1736, the fulfilment of the royal order.

The matter did not stop here. The Jesuits were showing a marked disposition toward the acquisition of worldly wealth, and no more fondness for paying taxes than have most corporations. But finding that they could not escape the infliction, they did the next best thing: they paid as little as possible. In the reign of Fernando VI., through Father Pedro Ignacio Altamirano, they made with that sovereign in January 1750 a contract of compromise for the tithes, under which they acquired privileges and facilities denied to other religious orders. They were thereby privileged to pay one out of every thirty-one, instead of one out of every ten. This concession was not only an unfair discrimination against the other religiosos, and in fact against all other producers, but had been actually obtained under a false representation of the quality and quantity of the crops. As a natural consequence, the ecclesiastical chapters of other religious orders in due time represented the facts to Fernando’s successor, Cárlos III., who referred them to his council; and though the pleas of the attorney of the society of Jesus were duly weighed, the crown's fiscales found them wanting, and asked that the so-called transaccion, having been obtained on false pretences, should be declared null, whether it was looked upon as a compromise or as a favor, for the right of the crown to the tithes recognized no privileges either anterior or posterior granted by the holy see. Thereupon they insisted that the Jesuits should be in future compelled to pay tithes like other producers. The attention of the council was also called to the studied policy of the Jesuit society in delaying the conclusion of this tithes question for over a century, to the injury of the royal treasury. The council, composed of eleven members, stood six to five in favor of submitting the case to the supreme court of justice. The king then called a council of members drawn from